Power and eroticism in Imperial Rome / Caroline Vout.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Vout, Caroline.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Emperors--Sexual behavior--Rome.

Emperors.

Sexual ethics--Rome.

Sexual ethics.

Power (Social sciences)--Rome.

Power (Social sciences).

Moral conditions.

Rome--Moral conditions.

Rome.

Rome (Empire).

Physical Description:

xiv, 285 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Summary:

The relationships between Roman emperors and their objects of desire, male and female, are well attested. The salacious nature of this evidence means that it is often omitted from mainstream historical inquiry. Yet that is to underestimate the importance of 'gossip' and the act of thinking about an emperor's private life. In this book Dr Vout takes the reader from Rome, and Martial's and Statius' poems about Domitian's favourite eunuch, to Antioch and dialogues in praise of Lucius Verus' mistress, to the widespread visual commemoration and cult of Hadrian's young male lover, Antinous. She explores not the relationships themselves but rather the implications of their description. Such description provides a template with which to examine the relationship between emperor and subject, gods and mortals, East and West, centre and periphery. It thus contributes to the fields of imperial representation, court society and the imperial cult.

Contents:

1 The erotics of imperium 1

Anecdotal history 1

The main storyline 5

The priapic paradigm 17

One touch of Venus 27

2 Romancing the stone: the story of Hadrian and Antinous 52

Approaching Antinous: the efficacy of the image 52

The sculpture: 'Schlagt die Augen nieder; hier ist Antinoos!' 171

Antinous and Roman religion: 'This is the god of imperial Rome!' 113

3 Compromising traditions: the case of Nero and Sporus 136

'Greek love' made Roman 136

Prelude: making sense of Maximus 140

Male-male desire as marriage 151

Sporus and Poppaea 157

4 A match made in heaven: Earinus and the emperor 167

Adopting an approach: the historicity of text and the textuality of history 167

Springtime for Caesar: Martial's epigrams about Earinus 175

Cutting to the chase: the impact of Earinus in Statius' Silvae 3.4 182

5 Mistress as metaphor: a dialogue with Panthea 213

'This was more than a woman: this was a masterpiece' 213

What's in a name? Lucian's Cyropaedia 218

Fractured identities 223

Locating Lucian 229

Gluing things back together 233

6 And so to bed... 240.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [243]-271) and indexes.

ISBN:

0521867398

9780521867399

OCLC:

72148426